NM Daily Lobo 101613

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DAILY LOBO new mexico

The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895

Deadlock i n

t h e

Desert

Failure to launch see Page 4

wednesday October 16, 2013

UNM researchers left high and dry

Courtesy Photo / UNM Sevilleta Field Station The Sevilleta Education and Research Facility (SERF) houses four laboratories for research and training in fields ranging from molecular ecology and evolution to animal and plant physiological ecology and systematics, according to the facility’s website. UNM’s Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program at the facility has been suspended since October 1 due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Government shutdown puts climate experiments at risk by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno

Five weeks ago, Anny Chung laid two species of grass in the soil of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. She was setting up an experiment concerning germination rates of

grass in arid ecosystems as part of UNM’s Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network. The grasses were the two most dominant species of grass in the governmentowned wildlife refuge. At first, the experiment went well. “Right after the fall of rain, they germinated,” she said. “I was able to get two samples of data points.” Then the government shut down. Chung, a graduate student in biology at UNM, was not caught

off-guard the political halt. Emails had been circulating around the inboxes of LTER’s staff the week before the shutdown, she said. So that day, after foreseeing the reality of the situation, Chung was forced to obtain as much data as she could. “The shutdown happened midnight Monday,” she said. “I was there the day of shutdown at 5 a.m. I was out there Monday until, you know, when I had to come back. I was out there just trying to get as

much data as I could … Since then, I don’t know if they germinated more or they died.” UNM’s LTER facility at Sevilleta closed after the United States federal government shut down 15 days ago on Oct. 1. The deadlock began when the House of Representatives, in which the Republican party holds a majority, proposed a budget for Fiscal Year 2014 without funding for the Affordable Care Act. Offended, the Senate, controlled

by Democrats, refused to pass the proposed budget. An agreement was not reached by the set deadline of 11:59 p.m. on September 30. Without a budget for the coming fiscal year, the federal government was forced to cease providing certain services, have certain federal workers work without pay, furlough other federal workers and federal contractors and suspend operations in

see Shutdown PAGE 3

Abortion measure draws activists’ attention by Chloe Henson

news@dailylobo.com @ChloeHenson

Arsenii Morin / Daily Lobo Dolores Huerta, center, discusses her opposition to the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance in the SUB Tuesday afternoon. The ordinance was placed on Albuquerque’s November 19 special elections ballot after a petition in support of the measure gathered the required number of signatures in September.

Inside the

Desert ice

Stiff armed

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Daily Lobo volume 118

issue 41

A nationally known activist discussed a controversial Albuquerque abortion measure on campus Tuesday afternoon. Dolores Huerta deemed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance unacceptable in a speech at the Student Union Building. In her speech, Huerta contested the anti-abortion ordinance, citing the right to an abortion as the “law of the land” because of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. She also talked about the implications of not allowing women to have an abortion. “If we, as women, cannot make the decision about our own bodies, how can we make a decision about our own future?” she said. “We have to really remind women of that because otherwise, we allow our futures to be controlled by someone else.” The abortion ban was placed on a special election ballot after antiabortion advocates gathered enough signatures in support of the measure. The measure aims to ban abortion for pregnancies beyond 20 weeks. Voters will decide on the fate of the ordinance in Albuquerque’s runoff elections on Nov. 19. Huerta, a native New Mexican, earned national recognition for her work as an activist. She co-founded

see Abortion PAGE 1

TODAY

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